.info Gains Momentum

[mole]

.INFO gains momentum in becoming Internet's leading source for Information

UK release
Deutsch Pressemeldungen


HORSHAM, PA - July 24, 2002 - Afilias, a global provider of domain name registry services, announced Wednesday that as of the end of May 2002, there were more than 200,000 live, dedicated Web sites in the new .INFO domain. This research indicates a strong growth potential for .INFO in key regions such as Europe, and poises .INFO to become one of the leading top-level domains (TLDs) worldwide.

According to DomainSCANsm research conducted for Afilias by Pegasus Consultants, an independent research and development firm specializing in domain names, more than 200,000 (24%) of registered .INFO domains were live, unique Web sites. In addition, 9% of registrations redirected to another Web site (such as .COM or .NET), and 12% were "parked" (returned a placeholder Web page that was displayed by the registrar). In total, close to 65% of .INFO registrations were "active" in some way.

Status of .INFO Domain Names (as of May 31, 2002):

Domain Status / % of Total
Dedicated .INFO Sites: 24%
Redirected Sites: 9%
Parked Sites: 12%
Other Active Sites: 20%
Inactive Sites: 35%
Total: 100%

"Afilias' fast, reliable and secure registry technology combined with its effective marketing have earned the confidence of registrants and built a solid foundation for realizing the long-term renewable business for this promising new Internet domain," said Roland LaPlante, Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. "The true measure of success for a new TLD is in expanding the name space in a meaningful way. These new, live .INFO sites are a clear indication of meaning, and with less than one year of business, .INFO has already demonstrated its sustainable value in the worldwide Internet market."


As of May 31, 2002, the leading markets for .INFO domain sales were Europe (52%) and North America (40%). Interestingly, close to 32% of all European .INFO registrations are now live, dedicated sites. Of the worldwide total of live .INFO sites, Europe accounts for 69%. This compares to North America, where 14% of all registrations are live sites, accounting for 23% of the total of live sites worldwide.

Worldwide Regional Breakdown of .INFO Registrations (July 2001 - May 2002):

Region / % of Total Registrations / % of Registrations that are live sites
Europe: 52% / 32%
North America: 40% / 14%
Asia Pacific: 7% / 20%
Africa: 0.8% / 36%
Latin America: 0.2% / 17%
Total: 100% / 24%


".INFO has demonstrated clear long-term potential to be a viable alternative to .COM in the worldwide Internet market and has made a useful addition to our international product portfolio," said David Hirschler, General Manager of Register.com's Retail Division. "The large number of live sites indicates that .INFO is building a strong base of business for the registry that will sustain the domain and stimulate budding registration markets worldwide."

Recent .INFO registrations are even more likely to be sites-- in May alone 30% of those names registered went live virtually immediately.

".INFO is still at an embryonic stage, but continues to build momentum as it matures," said Tom D'Alleva, Vice President of Marketing at BulkRegister. ".INFO's momentum is visible in the growing number of registrations and high percentage of live sites, and serves as a sound foundation for the complete service packages that we are able to offer our .INFO customers. As you look month to month, it continues to improve in value over time as more and more registrants are coming to .INFO first to establish new sites."

These research results for .INFO bode well for the growth of new domain markets worldwide. In the US alone there are more than 44,000 active .INFO sites in place today. However, Germany is #2 in registrations (or 22% of worldwide registrations) and #1 in live sites with 82,445 (44% of the total German registrations, and 41% of the worldwide total of live sites).

"It's good to see domain names being devoted to active usage," said Mason Cole, Vice President of Corporate Marketing for SnapNames and Publisher of State of the Domain (www.sotd.info). "Continued progress for the .INFO domain will help re-establish overall growth in the domain name industry."

Cole also indicated this type of usage analysis will be valuable in assessing registration quality, an important new metric. "Industry participants are going to need this data to assess marketplace shifts and adapt to a changing global economy," he said.

Originally posted by mole
[B]
more than 200,000 (24%) of registered .INFO domains were live, unique Web sites. In addition, 9% of registrations redirected to another Web site (such as .COM or .NET), and 12% were "parked" (returned a placeholder Web page that was displayed by the registrar).

The 24%/200,000 statistic is extremely hard to beleive, especially since I have yet to hear of many big co's using the extension, maybe the the 200,000 includes 199,000 "for sale" pages?

Originally posted by snoopy


The 24%/200,000 statistic is extremely hard to beleive, especially since I have yet to hear of many big co's using the extension, maybe the the 200,000 includes 199,000 "for sale" pages?

How about search engine pages? :razz:

Afilias, a global provider of domain name registry services, announced Wednesday that as of the end of May 2002, there were more than 200,000 live, dedicated Web sites in the new .INFO domain.

And they have nothing to gain from massaging the stats to paint a different picture to reality - do they?

[mole]

You want figures, you get figures

can we have figures from someone other than the purse holder though?

[David G]

I also seriously doubt the 24% number. It is very difficult to believe.

An interesting experiment would be for someone to randomly select say 30 .info names you know are reg'd and see if at least 7 or 8 of them resolve to dedicated actual websites. Extremely unlikely they will resolve to .info websites.

The reason I say 30, is that according to math experts 30 is the minimum number required for statistical validity.

worthbearing in mind snapnames comments;

"The growth rate of additions to the BIZ and INFO zone files has slowed from approximately 1,500 to 1,000 names per day. Utilization rate (i.e. activation of live web sites) in these new namespaces so far is in the range of only 1% to 3%. "

The article is a little old but its still hard to beleive the % of names being used has suddenly jumped so much.

http://www.snapnames.com/press_febsotdPR.html

[mole]

This is really http://www.healthy.info

[Domain]

Originally posted by mole
This is really http://www.healthy.info

Notice the Title at the top of your browser?

"Welcome to ChronicDisease.biz"

[DomeBase]

Originally posted by goh


How about search engine pages? :razz:

Hi goh,

you are too modest. you do know somethin! (and good info on England vs. UK

I agree that number of search engine pages is another important metric to track here. Does not track site quality, but is another useful measure that I plan to track for trends. Currently, .info pages are around 1% of .com pages on google and .org pages are around 30% of .com. You can look at the 1% as being very small, but given lag between site development and google listing, it bears watching. My hunch is that it will increase rapidly.

[bigdave]

Originally posted by Domain


Notice the Title at the top of your browser?

"Welcome to ChronicDisease.biz"

hehehe, too funny. and of course ChronicDisease.biz is pretty much the same site...

Woo-hoo, .info rocks!

BD

Hi DomeBase,

Sorry, I was joking with snoopy instead of "for sale" pages, some domain investors like to use their domain(s) as PPC S/E page which generates income for them.

You guys may simply be missing the bigger picture.

The majority of my LandRush II customers were German. At least 80% of the LandRush II names awarded through us were German words as well.

Perhaps this growth is in an area you don't normally frequent.

-t

[DomeBase]

Originally posted by thewitt
You guys may simply be missing the bigger picture.

The majority of my LandRush II customers were German. At least 80% of the LandRush II names awarded through us were German words as well.

Perhaps this growth is in an area you don't normally frequent.

-t

Hi. Perhaps you were responding to other comments... I am well aware of the international growth of .INFO, particularly in Germany. "From this perspective, .INFO will grow and succeed as a significant alternative to .COM, particularly for informational and international websites. " -- Where Does .INFO Go? A Study of 1,600+ Working Websites, July 10, 2002, http://www.DomeBase.com/infolist.htm Also, when calculating .INFO pages as a percentage of .COM pages on Google, I did not restrict language to english, so I think this gives a pretty good global view.

[mole]

Yes. .info is local language friendly in many parts of Europe. Like fish to water.

I've seen a lot of .info sites in languages outside English.

[adoptabledomains]

The 24%/200,000 statistic is extremely hard to beleive, especially since I have yet to hear of many big co's using the extension, maybe the the 200,000 includes 199,000 "for sale" pages?

The big companies have had or have acquired (and can afford) .com's. I would venture that the developed .infos are smaller companies for the most part. With a large number registered in Europe, many would not be in recognized English words, making them less likely to be run across or typed in by English speakers.

[Luckystar]

info domain is free now

[Banned: DNnic]

info domain is free now

Yes - .info it's free now, but won't be free in the future.

This thread was posted 2 years ago...

Let's come back to check this posting 2 years later, I believe that .info will totally different...

[Domagon]

.COM was once free too, so in that sense, the .info promotion makes sense. On the other hand, the net is very different now, and the promotion illustrates again that ".info" is struggling ... but at least, unlike some TLDs, they're trying some creative marketing approaches to gain marketshare. I'll check this thread again next year LOL!

Ron